


Something New

by AgentStannerShipper



Series: Fictober 2019 [14]
Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Eden - Freeform, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-25 22:29:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21363691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentStannerShipper/pseuds/AgentStannerShipper
Summary: A bit more of Eden
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Fictober 2019 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540126
Kudos: 33





	Something New

**Author's Note:**

> For fictober day fourteen: “I can’t come back.”

“I’ve figured it out, you know.”

Crawly froze, his stomach tightening. With shaking hands, he brushed a long, red curl behind his ear and turned, his yellow, slitted eyes meeting angelic blue. Beside him on the wall, beautiful white wings still stretched overhead to protect them from the downpour, Aziraphale held his gaze, but his lips were pressed into a thin, tight line.

“Figured out what?” Crawly asked, trying to feign nonchalance. His insides might as well have been made of serpents for all they squirmed, and he swallowed hard, stopping his eyes from welling with tears with sheer force of will and cursing the form that had him here, standing beside Aziraphale but unable to touch him.

“You were all angels before the Fall,” Aziraphale said quietly. He broke eye contact, staring at the white stone beneath their feet. “All you demons, I mean. And it changed you. Made you…” He made a little wavy gesture with his hand, one that swept the length of Crawly’s body. “Anyway, that’s why it took me a minute. Why I didn’t recognize you right away. But we knew each other, didn’t we? You were-“

“Don’t.” Crawly didn’t put his finger over Aziraphale’s lips, but his hand twitched, like it was contemplating doing it anyway. He clenched his fist. He had the most terrible feeling that to lay a finger on the angel would be to burn all over again. He shook his head. “Don’t say it. I’m not…whoever that was, I’m not him anymore.”

Aziraphale lifted his head, staring now in earnest, his eyes wide and honest. “But you didn’t do anything all that wrong! Surely you could make an appeal, renounce Hell and-“

“You think I didn’t try that?” Crawly cut him off. His tongue tasted acrid in his mouth. He resisted the urge to spit. “I can’t come back. Not to Heaven, not ever.” He laughed, one he didn’t feel. “Besides, even if it might have worked before, it wouldn’t now, would it? Not with this apple business. My fault. I did that.” His eyes flicked downward, to the dark speck in the distance that was a pair of humans – the first humans – in the desert. “I’m a demon,” he said. “It’s what I do.”

Aziraphale followed his gaze, and his face morphed to uncertainty again. “I suppose you’re right.”

The rain continued, puddling around them, wetting Crawly’s feet. Maybe it was the newfound reptile in him, the repulsive crawling _thing_, but as it soaked his soles, he felt colder than he ever had before. He shivered, wrapping his arms around himself and rubbing them with his hands. Aziraphale said nothing of it. After all, demons don’t get cold, any more than angels do.

“Thanks for not smiting me,” Crawly said after a minute.

“Oh. Don’t mention it.”

Loosened by the beating of the rain, one of Aziraphale’s feathers fluttered and then fell, brushing over the top of Crawly’s head like a caress and then tickling his nose before he caught it. It didn’t burn like he expected, nor did the sharp tip prick his palm. It was just a feather, white and sleek and soft as his own. Crawly stroked it once and then made as if to toss it aside. He stopped. He glanced at Aziraphale, who wasn’t looking at him any longer. He looked at the feather. Then he slipped it into the folds of his robes.

“Funny weather we’re having,” he said. “I’ve never seen a thunderstorm before.”

Aziraphale gave him an odd look. “No,” the angel said. “No one has.”


End file.
